VIRGINIA GOVERNMENT & POLITICS

Youngkin’s pick for Historic Resources Board under fire for defending the Confederacy

By Katie King
The Virginian-Pilot • Jul 21, 2022 at 7:21 am

Gov. Glenn Youngkin is facing calls to withdraw his recent appointee to the Historic Resources Board due to her recent comments defending the Confederacy and criticizing former President Abraham Lincoln’s role in the Civil War.

Youngkin announced last week he had appointed Ann McLean, a historian and the founder of a Christian school in Richmond, to serve on the Board of Historic Resources. Shortly after, she came under fire for previous remarks defending Confederate statues on a Richmond radio show. On Monday, she returned to the radio show and seemingly doubled down.

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McLean, who founded Hunter Classical Christian School in Richmond, could not be reached for comment. ... On Monday’s radio show, McLean said southern states had the right to secede and did not commit treason. She also criticized Lincoln for calling up troops against the Confederates. ... “Invasion, just like we see Russia invading Ukraine, invading a new territory was wrong,” she said. “And so many people want to just flatten the whole Civil War to slavery, and of course we know slavery is not good. But I think slavery would have been outlawed in the South within five or 10 years, but they wanted to do it on their time.”

During her previous appearance on the show in December, she objected to the removal of Confederate statues and said they were built to tell the “true story of the American South” and its fight for the “sovereignty of each state and constitutional law.”

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Katie King, katie.king@virginiamedia.com